Eating Disorder Recovery and Being a Passionate Foodie, with Author and Food Expert, Hannah Howard

Today I’m talking to Hannah Howard, from New Jersey, where she lives with her husband, daughter, new baby son and very cute puppy. Hannah is a writer and food expert who spent her formative years in New York eating, drinking, serving, bartending, cooking on a line, flipping giant wheels of cheese, and managing restaurants. She loves to write about delicious things, teach food writing classes, and might just spend all day at a market shopping for fruits and veggies. Her memoir, Feast: True Love in and Out of the Kitchen, debuted as Amazon's number one bestselling memoir in 2018. Her new book Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family, is recently out and available to buy.

Hannah’s relationship with food has been profoundly complicated. On the one hand having a love and passion for it, as a real foodie, on the other hand, struggling with an eating disorder. Hannah’s book PLENTY is where Hannah shares her personal reckoning with loss and self-love as she struggles with the ghost of an eating disorder. Her journey is both geographical and psychological as she travels the globe –from New York to Oslo to Italy to name a few of the destinations travelled. Through a web of vignettes, Hannah reflects on her friendships with a diverse cast of women, these being strong female mentors, who have taken on meaningful, creative work with purpose and potential in the male-dominated food industry. Using drippy, delicious imagery, she describes enviable meals and expeditions, finding love and community, and how food has connected her to family and friends. Alongside this, weaving in her own personal journey, in ongoing eating disorder recovery, learning to trust and accept her body and dealing with a devastating pregnancy loss along the way.

Hannah’s work has been featured in New York Magazine, VICE, SELF, Thrillist, Serious Eats, Bust, refinery29, Salon, and many others. In this episode, you’ll hear about Hannah’s recovery story, her experiences as a passionate foodie, writing books and in dealing with life’s loves and losses. I hope that you enjoy the episode.  

To find out more about Hannah:

Instagram: @hannhmhoward

Website: https://www.hannahhoward.nyc/